However, you may check out this making of for some ideas of how I work and the testing I go through. Enjoy!

Like it says above, this is a placeholder that I'm going to update. For now, it's so that I have every option filled out on my profile so that I can make it complete. Also, I apparently need 300 characters.

Unlike what most people tend to think, the Gimp and Photoshop are actually quite equal in what they can handle.
In some aspects, the Gimp is actually ahead of Photoshop, whereas Photoshop is ahead of the Gimp in others.

If you want to choose, don't look at the program with the largest pricetag, look at what it is you want to do with it. I believe Photoshop might be better suited for painting (please correct me if I'm wrong) though the gimp has a faster interface for image-editing.